army brat

noun

Informal.

1. the child of an army officer or enlisted person, especially one who has grown up on army bases or in military communities.

When To Use

What does army brat mean?

An army brat is the child of someone (usually an officer) serving full-time in the army or another branch of the military, especially a child who grew up living on military bases.The word brat usually refers to a poorly behaved child, but its use in army brat doesn’t carry any of the negative meaning—it just refers to a kid. There is a culture surrounding army brats, since they share childhood experiences that are unlike many others, especially if they moved from place to place.Example: Michael credits his grasp of several languages to a childhood spent as an army brat moving around to different military bases.